28 April 2012

This is another excellent modification for the Close Combat 5: Invasion Normandy game. While Invasion Normandy as a whole focused on pretty much the whole Normandy campaign it wasn't satisfying enough on a micro level when it came to the fighting around the beach landing areas.

Bloody Omaha remedies that and provides a modification that has complete focus on the beach landing and the immediate areas beyond the beaches. This makes for a very small geographical area but allows for a much more detailed first week of battle following the D-day landings.

What's even more exciting are the slightly improved graphics, but first and foremost the awesome sounds added to this game which really increase the atmosphere a lot. Units scream out in despair and panic or yell orders completely based upon the situation they have found themselves in - and most of the sounds for the Americans have clearly been taken from the Saving Private Ryan movie - it's hard to explain and it may sound like a bad idea but the modmakers actually made it work really well. The sounds of vehicles are also greatly improved, the sound of turrets traversing when your Sherman picks its next target is really awesome.

Furthermore the armylists for both sides are a lot more themed to fit the situation. Beach landing parties are composed of divisions or battalions depending on what area they are assaulting. You get a lot less units in your roster when you attack Point Du Hoc with your rangers than you might get when attacking a central area of the Omaha beach section better supported by regular army.

You also get landing parties that have been scattered and are undermanned - it provides an excellent challenge and extremely satisfying gameplay when you try to press on against the German defenders who have perfect defensive positions and where you have to really utilize your best infantry tactics with covering fire, use of smoke and running from trenchline to the next bunker assault dodging enemy machinegun fire. It also adds to that challange when you move inland with those smaller battalions to quickly seize important locations on the campaign map and try to hold those until you can relieve them with your larger formations supported by tanks.

There are a lot of new unit compositions in this modifications, pretty much everything has been changed to represent a more accurate historical force strength of both battlegroups and single sections on the battlefield. You may for instance run across a German artillery regiment, these guys are all artillery infantry and equipped mostly with long range AT guns and sparse amount of regular infantry, but may come with guard posts, observer teams, scouts and machinegun sections. The size of many teams has also been changed.

The forces in this mod have a great "theme" to them and you really feel like you are fighting against (or with) a dedicated army type rather than generic infantry regiments of the regular CC5: Invasion Normandy roster.

I really recommend this mod!

Info on where you can get the mod and how to install it is provided in the links below.